The invention relates to cartons especially suitable for packaging of flat food products such as pizza pies and more particularly relates to a carton formed from a single blank cut and scored to form an octagonal tray when erected to provide angled corner formations disposed to engage the food product for preventing undesirable displacement thereof.
Cartons or containers for packaging flat food products, such as cakes; pies or pizza pies, are well known and exist in a number of types and shapes. The conventional type of flat food product carton generally is a shallow, substantially square-configured carton sized to fit relatively closely adjacent the edge of the product when assembled. These cartons generally have relatively wide tops and bottoms which can deflect into contact with the food product. One or more of the sides of the cartons also can be unsupported so as to allow the food product to shift inadvertently, thereby further subjecting the product to damage or sticking to the carton walls.
Octagonal cartons have been developed to avoid the crushing or deflecting of the carton tops and bottoms, especially when the cartons are stacked. One such substantially octagonal carton is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,512,697. This carton includes a tray having reinforcement corner formations at substantially 45 degree angles to alleviate crushing of the carton. The carton is formed from a blank which has a plurality of foldable panels which must be manipulated to assemble the carton. A second carton having improved crush resistance relative to the carton of U.S. Pat. No. 3,512,697 is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,923,234. This carton utilizes a double fold corner structure to improve the resistance to crushing of the carton.
It would be desirable to have a carton according to the invention herein which can be formed into a tray of octagonal shape from an integral blank of a minimal amount of paperboard and which easily can be assembled around a pieshaped food product, such as a pizza pie. The tray has angular corner formations which engage the flat panel or sheet on which the pizza pie is carried so as to prevent lateral shifting of the food product and includes a hinged cover for closing off the open upper end of the tray. The hinged cover is provided by a single panel of the integral blank which is hingedly secured to one of the side walls of the tray independently of the said corner formations.